(Clearwisdom.net) Nine Falun Dafa practitioners were arrested this year when they were distributing information about the persecution of Falun Gong. With the help of righteous thoughts, eight of them were released and only one is still being detained.
After their release, the practitioners freely shared their experiences with other Falun Dafa practitioners and all agreed that they were released because they, together with other practitioners, sent forth righteous thoughts in a coordinated manner. All of the arrested practitioners shared the following righteous thoughts, "We are doing a sacred thing by saving sentient beings; we are guilty of no crime; those who persecute us are under the control of evil elements in the cosmos; those who persecute us commit a crime against Dafa and all sentient beings; and those who persecute us are themselves victims."
The freed practitioners were able to completely negate the evil forces because they understood that the police who persecuted them had been deceived and the practitioners' compassion enabled them to try to save the police even though they were being persecuted by them. Some practitioners told the police, "Our Teacher has said that everyone on earth is his close relative, which means that you are also our relatives, so we want to tell you that we cultivate the qualities of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance and strive to be good people. We tell people about Falun Dafa so that we can save them and, when you treat us this way, you have helped evil forces mistreat good people - in fact you have committed a crime. If you continue to follow Jiang Zemin in this way, it will bring bad luck to you and your family."
The power of the practitioners' tolerance and compassion dissolved the evil aspects of the police who arrested them. Some of the practitioners were released immediately or later the same day. Some of the practitioners were even driven home by police officers. This happened, in part, because they all had one additional righteous thought: "I have Teacher and the Fa, so what am I afraid of?" We are not alone. Our fellow practitioners will send us strength and will thus come to our rescue. But if our righteous thoughts are not strong, the strength received from other practitioners will not help. Our own righteous thoughts are the most important. Teacher said in the "Fa Teaching Given at the Epoch Times Meeting,"
"Ordinary people don't know that all of this is encompassed by the expression 'the appearance stems from the mind.' So, put another way, one's own factors can in fact change one's surroundings."
Additionally, Teacher said in the "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,"
"But as long as you do well, have ample righteous thoughts, and coordinate things well, the situation will change."
There were common elements in our coordinated efforts to obtain the release of our fellow practitioners. When we learned that some of our fellow practitioners had been arrested, the first thing we thought was that we must send forth righteous thoughts to give them strength and to disintegrate the evil that was persecuting them. We thought only about how to rescue our fellow practitioners and did not criticize them for having attachments, as we had done in the past. Everyone started working immediately, each according to his or her own abilities: some coordinated with the families of the arrested practitioners to appeal to the Public Security Bureau for the release of the practitioners; some made phone calls; some posted the truth-clarification materials; some wrote letters and sent information to the relevant departments; and some even went to the police stations to send forth righteous thoughts. The many practitioners who sent forth righteous thoughts in combination formed a righteous field that accelerated the disintegration of the evil elements and the persecution. The evil had no choice but to release the practitioners.
When we discussed how to rescue fellow practitioners who were still being detained, we all thought of Teacher's warning, "In other matters and in the course of cultivation practice, one should be sure to not develop the attachment of zealotry--this mentality can be very easily taken advantage of by demons." Zhuan Falun We mustn't become over complacent even when we have succeeded in rescuing fellow practitioners. As we do this work, we must recognize that practitioners are doing the most sacred thing by saving sentient beings. We do not accept the persecution and if we allow the perpetrators of evil to persecute practitioners, they will continue to commit these crimes and their futures will be bleak. We must be firm in our belief that the rescue will succeed and not waver or be confused by any legal proceedings. We must totally negate the persecution.
We realize that the most important part of rescuing practitioners is the opportunity it affords us to tell people about Falun Dafa and to save them. It also gives us an opportunity to improve in our own cultivation, both as individuals and as a group.
Teacher said in the "Fa Teaching at the 2009 Greater New York International Fa Conference,"
"My Dafa disciples... you are distributed over a large expanse (gesturing), and you are each now responsible for your respective area of this world. Changes in your thinking can lead to changes in your surrounding environment. How the people in your region are is a result of the extent to which you have clarified the truth to them. The environment is shaped by your human attachments. When the environment is bad, it is because you made it that way."
As long as we have the righteous thoughts and coordinate well, our fellow practitioners will be released and, in the meantime, we will save more sentient beings.